We’ve listed some of the highlights we’ve taken from the interview:

1. When you come up with your brand name - make sure it reflects your core values and USPs - (the best word in the English language to describe the innocent values is ‘natural’ - the words ‘innocent’ and ‘natural’ certainly go hand-in-hand - so they did their job perfectly)

2. It really helps to love your product / service that your business offers your customers in the interview Richard bravely revealed how much he loves the ingredients of his food and drinks by confessing that he’d been to dinner parties where he’d been more focused on the fruit-salad in the corner - that’s loving your product

3. If you’re a wannabe business leader or entrepreneur with a rather unglamorous job history - it’s okay! - the vast majority of entrepreneurs and business leaders have had pretty unglamorous jobs along the journey of learning and self-discovery - Richard had his paradigm shift and realized he wanted to a life of entrepreneurship whilst working in a dog-biscuit factory (admittedly after he’d had his epiphany he bolted out the door pretty quickly)

4. Remember if you’re in business then to be successful you must be fundamentally solving an unmet customer need.  As Richard points out, where there’s an unmet customer need there’s an opportunity

5. Once you know what unmet customer need you’re solving you must be able to communicate that easily and well.  

6. Another good way of visualizing the customer need - is to by asking yourself what what  itch are you scratching for your customer (not literally)

7. Don’t worry -  to be a massively successful entreprenuer you don’t necessarily have to invent something new!... but rather take something out there and do it better i.e. the Co-founders didn’t invent the smoothie, but they were first to come up with the key differenitator of being ‘natural’ and free of preservatives etc. - and then to shout about it

8. You should be able to describe your brand in one word - for innocent it’s encompassed by the word ‘natural’

9. you know your core values - make sure that at all the points of contact you have with your customer reflect these core values.  At innocent - think about the quirky innocent labels and amazing communication style we all love - this is them coming across naturally in a friendly,  non-pompous way.  Frankly it’s sometimes hard to bring a smile to our face at 8.00am in the morning when it’s grey out - but they manage it

10. Loads of people have ideas - but you have to be one of the few great people that take action on your idea - that’s the difference that makes the difference - that’s when you go from a dreamer to an entrepreneur.  Richard and the team took £500 of fruit, made their favourite smoothie and then flogged them down the market to see how they sold - that’s taking action (this is a shorter version of the story - Richard tells it much better in the interview)

11. Start (ideas) small and then cut it or expand it - if you’re in a small company or giant company you have to have prototypes and test, test, test (in a small way and invest if it works)

12. If you’ve got some friends that want to start a business with you - then starting a company with friends isn’t always a bad idea (the innocent Co-founders proved the point very well at innocent!).  Just make sure it’s a team that the team compliments each other - i.e. different skill sets, but the same values.  It should be 1 + 1 + 1 = 8 (if you know what we mean)

13. On the team thing again - another benefit of having a team is a really practical one (but important one) - and it’s this: if you’re having a bad day then the chances are that at least one of the Co-founders (or your team members) isn’t - and then you can pick each other up

14. Fundamentally - when you know your core purpose (the main thing) it makes making strategic decisions a whole lot easier.  So for example when the innocent team had to decide whether to distribute their drinks via McDonald’s (and they got everybody in the company together to discuss it) it was quite a simple decision: Yes!  Why? - because fundamentally they’d sell more smoothies and that’s healthy for those people that buy them.  Simple.  Keep the main thing the main thing.

15. Innocent is a great David and Goliath story.  When we asked Richard about how small cos can win he pointed out that you just have to have a better product in the eyes of the consumer - then articulate that difference in everything you do in a transparent and honest way.

16. On the packaging point - Richard says “The greatest job of packaging is to make you want it before you even know what the thing is”.

17. When looking to build a brand (on a low budget, or with any budget for that matter) - look for cheap but high impact means of doing so (for example the quirky jokes on the side of the innocent bottles and pots cost innocent nothing, but had massive value in the eyes of their brand - and still continues to - and we love them).

18. On organizational culture - remember “you don’t create a culture it’s more down to  the people that you recruit - “my personal belief is the single most important business decision you make is who gets to come and join your business” Richard Reed.  Hire the right people and the rest is history.

19. On hiring again - (as it’s all about hiring) make sure that you recruit based on the values of your company - but don’t forget you also need to hire both on SKILLS and VALUES - you need both to have a happy partnership

20. You can have fun at work - but that doesn’t mean that you’re not serious about your objectives and hitting your targets.  If you hire great people then they will be.

21. Business is all about relationships so invest in them - Richard and the innocent team really like the guy they were dealing with at Coke - which is one of the reasons that they went ahead.  Yes money is important but people want to work with people they respect and like (and it’s true for all the stakeholders, not just employees and team members).

22. Yes innocent is a great success story - but Richard makes the great point that in business you should never get complacent (even if you’re a market leader) - in fact he says it’s good to be paranoid (though as Richard says be paranoid but up to a point - if you get paranoid about being paranoid you’ve gone too far!)

23. BTW - the visionary angel investor that backed innocent Maurice Pinto also shares Richard’s point on the importance of people - he backed innocent at an early stage more because he believed more in the whip-smart and cool management team than the idea itself. Hats off to him.